1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to presence detection systems, and particularly to methods, systems, and computer program products for implementing presence detection using a scanner.
2. Description of Background
Many of today's point-of sale terminals, such as kiosks and self-checkout terminals contain presence sensors (for detecting people) and scanners. Scanners are used to communicate product identification to the system while the people presence sensor is used to detect the presence of individuals at or nearby the terminal and use the presence of a person to control various states of the components of the system. The various system components utilized in maintaining such a terminal typically require a great deal of power consumption as they perform continuous and extensive functions. For example, a presence detection component of a terminal device may be required to continuously monitor for presence of individuals. The same terminal device may include other system components that remain active in the event of some activity (e.g., ATM transactions, scanning data for point-of-sale purchases, etc.). These different system components typically utilize a great deal of power, particularly when they are required to maintain an active state over time.
What is needed, therefore, is a more cost efficient way to perform presence detection and scanning processes at a terminal device in a manner that achieves the desired control of a system like lower power consumption than current systems while achieving efficient performance characteristics.